Now that's surely going to bring BT out of his hiatus.
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Mason Cox would be good for our international promotions. We'd have an American and English in the ruck...
Personally the one that I'd be sounding out, especially if Cameron goes to Geelong is Ratugolea. He offers versatility and something different to what we currently have.
Ratugolea is horrible IMO.
Played maybe 2? good games in his career, the rest is filled with flying for marks but dropping them and making stupid turnovers. Geelong's ruck/forward stocks are worse than ours and they don't play him every week, what does that tell us!?
I wouldn't say his ruck work is anything to write home about but he's certainly well ahead of Bruce/Dunkley/Jong etc. Probably been somewhat hampered by the fact that Grundy can almost ruck all game and that they've tried making Cox their #1 forward.
That's the concern. I was a fan of getting Bruce to the club but in hindsight, he really limits our ability to play a second ruck/forward option.Quote:
2. How does he fit into our forward line mix? I'm not sure you can play Bruce, Cox and Naughton together. Our forward pressure is already lacking.
My suggestion would be to play Naughton back given he's really only played 2 very good games as a forward against quality opposition (Adelaide this year doesn't count) and our back half is crying out for a defender. We can fix 2 of our most glaring issues by moving him back and playing Cox as a forward/second ruck.
This would be my biggest sticking point.Quote:
3. Do we really want to pay him upwards of $500k per season?
Guess it depends on what the average wage is now / what we're currently spending.
They have Hawkins as the permanent alpha dog and a pretty effective combo of Stanley/Blicavs to do the rucking, around the ground/forward stuff. Lessens the need and utility of someone like Rat.
Esava is definitely no world beater but he’s a monster that could fill a role for us.
Geelong putting an offer for Isaac Smith
Ratugolea is a good in theory player thus far. However, he's not going to get worse and at 22 he might just be worth the risk given if he remains in the system he's probably going to get better between now and three years time.
So the questions are, who would he force out of our current side now? How does he fit into our future structure if he succeeds?
In answer to the first question, nobody is what I'm thinking. So if he was to come to us he's going to want for injuries to other forwards to get his chance and in honesty with the way Naughton is going it's probably not the worst gamble for him to take especially if Geelong land Cameron. We're not going to drop Bruce if he's fit, and whilst he may be technically unfit he's not missed through injury with us just yet.
With Bruce gone after a few more years however, there's definitely going to be a spot for a player who has worked on his craft and is strong, being ready to take the game on at 25 years of age.*
Honestly, on the cheap he's definitely not the worst player we could put time into but I reckon he'll be keen to stick with the Cats and they'll be keen to develop him.
*JUH is either going to be a midfielder or a half back
Collingwood rumoured to be almost trying to force Treloar out of the club.
That seems... odd.
Pendles is almost finished and Treloar has been a very good player. Had his injury concerns and apparently his salary spikes in 2021, but that would seem a huge backward step for mine.
Still only 27.